SFIA Appoints Jay Larson as Secretariat of the Newly Formed SFIA Standards Committee

FALLS CHURCH, VA (November 6, 2024) — The Steel Framing Industry Association (SFIA), an accredited ANSI Standards Development Organization, announced today that Jay Larson, P.E., F.ASCE, formerly with the American Iron and Steel Institute, has been appointed secretariat of the newly formed SFIA Standards Committee.

As secretariat, Larson will be responsible for overseeing the development of standards related to the cold-formed steel (CFS) framing industry, which will make use of the Canvass Method of industry participation.

‘Perfect Fit’ for SFIA Standards Development

Larson has extensive experience with structural steel and CFS framing. He began his career in 1979 as a civil/structural engineer for Bethlehem Steel. Thereafter, he had roles in construction engineering, facilities engineering, sales and marketing, the latter involving the marketing of coated sheet steel (galvanized and Galvalume) for construction. In 1991, Larson became vice chair of the AISI Committee on Specifications (COS). In 1998, he became first chair of the AISI Committee on Framing Standards (COFS). In 2003, Larson moved to AISI, where he served as secretary of the COFS. In 2008, after COS and COFS were combined, Larson was appointed secretary of the AISI Standards Council.

“We are excited to welcome Jay to our standards development team,” says Don Allen, SFIA executive director. “His expertise is a perfect fit for the work we will be doing advocating for the development of favorable cold-formed steel code provisions.”

Assisting Larson on the SFIA Standards Committee will be Meredith Perez as committee administrator. Perez, SFIA’s program manager, has prior experience in developing standards at the Canadian Standards Association, serving on the National Building Code of Canada Standing Committee for Small Buildings and Housing and working for the Canadian Sheet Steel Building Institute.

Secretariat Jay Larson and Administrator Meredeth Perez of the SFIA Standards Committee.

SFIA Seeks Canvass Group Participants

The SFIA Standards Committee, which will give approval to the actions of the canvass groups, invites individuals interested in participating in the standards development process to complete a survey as soon as possible. The survey is available at surveymonkey.com/r/CFS-standards-interest-survey.

Currently, the SFIA Standards Committee consists of:

1. Pat Ford, P.E., S.E., committee chair and SFIA technical director;
2. Roger A. LaBoube, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, distinguished teaching professor of civil engineering and director, Wei-Wen Yu Center for Cold-Formed Steel Structures at the University of Missouri-Rolla;
3. Greg Ralph, vice president at ClarkDietrich and chair of the SFIA Code Compliance Committee;
4. Jeff Klaiman, P.E., principal at ADTEK Engineers and chair of the SFIA Technical Committee;
5. Benjamin W. Schafer, Ph.D., P.E., the Willard and Lillian Hackerman Professor of Civil and Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins University;
6. Bill Babich, P.E., director of engineering, at the TrusSteel Division of Alpine Engineered Products, Inc.;  and
7. Rob Madsen, P.E., senior project engineer, at Devco Engineering, Inc.

For more information, contact Don Allen, SFIA executive director, at allen@steelframing.org.

Additional Resources

• SFIA Seeks Participants for Cold-Formed Steel Framing Standards Development
• SFIA Receives ANSI Accreditation, Assumes Management of CFS Framing Standards
• Designers: Update to SFIA’s 2024 Tech Guide for the Latest CFS Load and Span Tables